Ultralight Ambient 003:
I found myself walking past this random field right at magic hour, one day before the summer solstice. With the light looking so nice, and so freshly full of inspiration from my time at the Spatial Audio Network Conference at ZiMMT, Leipzig, I couldn’t resist stopping and making something.
When: Magic hour // June 20, 2025
Where: A field in the middle of Leipzig
Gear used: Ableton Note + Vocals
This jam was definitely peak ultralight, just my phone running Ableton Note and my voice. I started by getting a little synth melody going and adding some effects to give me a melodic base. I then added some vocals using the sampler, layering one on top of each other track by track.
When I duplicate each sampler, it copies the delay and reverb effects with the channel each time so I don’t have to dial them in, allowing me to sketch out the idea fairly quickly.
With my second to last remaining channel, I record some ambiance, catching some birds that are also chilling nearby. Pretty sweet for a spot in the middle of a city.
With my last channel, I grabbed another sampler and set it to resample mode. [PS. The fact you can resample your own output in Ableton Note is absolutely one of my favorite features!]
I record my piece, and set it to play back at a lower speed and pitch by choosing a lower note on the sampler. Then I delete some layers I’m not using any more and record some vocal layers on top of the new version of the piece. Eventually, I throw a delay on the master bus and ride that feedback into the setting sun.
Lovely jam, glad I stopped by.
